Bacchus and Ariadne. Engraving by P.M. Vitali after A. von Maron, 1783.

"Bacchus carries a thyrsus and leans against a truncated column. He twines the fingers of his right hand through Ariadne's hair; she shyly returns his tender gaze"-Joyce, op. cit. p. 430

The Roman domestic mural painting of which this is a copy was situated in a room that which was dedicated to Bacchus and bacchic themes (Buti room D). Facing the painting was one of the drunken Hercules, for which see the Wellcome Library catalogue no. 575578i

[Rome] : [Camillo Buti], 1783.

1 print : engraving ; platemark approximately 56 x 81 cm

Equiti Josepho Nicolao de Azara potentiss. Caroli III Hisp. reg. Catholici apud S. Sedem pro legato procuratorique generali aequo bonarum artium aestimatori et c. parietinas picturas inter Esquilias et Viminalem collem anno MDCCLXXVII detectas in ruderibus privatae domus Divi Antonini Pii aevo depictas facili elegantique arte et ornamentorum simplicitate spectandas servata proportione in tabulis expressas Camillus Buti architectus romanus D.D.D. MDCCLXXXIII Cum privilegio S.S.D.N. Pii VI. Eques Antonius Maron del. Petrus Vitali sculp. Bears number: VII

One of eight prints dedicated to José Nicolás de Azara, which were subsequently (in 1793, 1800, 1801 and 1802) supplemented by a further four prints dedicated to the Earl of Bristol, Bishop of Derry

Hetty Joyce, 'The ancient frescoes from the Villa Negroni and their influence in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries', Art bulletin, September 1983, pp. 423-440, fig. 11

Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, 'Romanizing frescoes: from the Villa Negroni to Ickworth', in Roma britannica: art patronage and cultural exchange in eighteenth century Rome, Rome: British School at Rome, 2011, pp. 193-203 (on the excavation and fate of the frescoes)

Wellcome Collection 575577i

After: a wall-painting which was discovered in Rome in 1777 in the grounds of the Villa Negroni (between S. Maria Maggiore and S. Maria degli Angeli, and later called Villa Montalto), was acquired by the Earl Bishop of Derry and subsequently perished